Saturday, December 24, 2005

Books $19.99

Hi Everyone!
First of all, thank you to everyone that has supported my work and my books.
To show my gratitude Imaginism Studios has lowered all my book prices to $19.99! Shipping and Handling is FREE to anywhere in the world!! So enjoy and thank you for letting me do what I love.
I've just updated my site with new wallpapers, prints, pictures.. etc, so check it out at www.imaginismstudios.com
Also I've received word that I'll be getting a bigger room at Sheridan College to teach my class and they've added 10 spots. Last I checked there were 6 spots left so please act quickly if you want to be in my Digital Painting class. Classes start January 12th, 2006.
Someone asked me to post this... it's a CG short that I made back in the day about one of my favorite sitcoms - "The Cosby Show."
I only animate as a hobby but I had a wonderful time making this film. Hope you'll all enjoy it!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
Title: Cosbee (2 minutes)
Click the image

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Subway Sketch Group cancelled until January 8, 2006

Hi everyone!

Thanks to all those that came out to sketch in the Toronto Subway Sketch Group on Sunday! I had a great time.

Winter is upon us and it's really been fun drawing all the fantastic people all bundled up for the cold.

Just a reminder to all the Toronto Subway Sketchers that the following sessions are
Cancelled - Sunday December 25, 2005 due to Christmas
Cancelled - Sunday January 1, 2006 due to hangovers from New Years Eve

Toronto Subway Sketch Group will continue Sunday January 8, 2006.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Bobby

Before you ask... Yes, there was a guy in a Santa hat in shorts with no shirt on flexing on the subway in the middle of winter. Absolutely Hilarious!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Hip Hop Sketches

I love listening to music. One of my favorite types of music has to be hip hop. Here's a page of sketches I did.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Sign up for Digital Painting Classes

Hi Everyone! I'm very excited to announce that my summer class "Digital Painting with Bobby Chiu" is now available for sign up.

It will be taking place at Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario. You can either register at the Sheridan College register's office or register on-line HERE.

Summer class will be the same as my winter class. 9 weeks long starting April 27, 2006. Every Thursday night 7pm to 10pm.

Course code is ARTS78011

Every week I'll be teaching different techniques and approaches to painting in Photoshop so be ready to fill your brain with lots of good information.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Subway Sketch Group Blog

Hey Everyone! I've started a new blog especially for my subway sketchers. Anyone that loves subway sketching is very welcome to join up and post their own drawings. It'll be interesting to see all the different observational sketches from the various places.
Bobby Chiu's Subway Sketch Group Blog

Here's a page of subway sketches from our last meeting Sunday Nov. 27, 2005

Thursday, November 10, 2005

New book! Cats & Dogs Sketches is here!




















Hi Everyone!
First off I'd like to thank everyone that bought my last book "Girl Sketches." It has been a big success!
Now I'd like to show you some samples from my newest book "Cats & Dogs Sketches"
There's articles on how to think in terms of composition, straights and curves, boxes, blind contours as well as a great article about how to learn art faster. And even MORE pics than the last book!

The book can be purchased at http://www.imaginismstudios.com/books.html

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

the next big thing...

[FROM BEN]

Thanks for everybody's kind comments and support! It's been a mad rush here at the studio lately. We've been designing Bobby's digital painting course that he will be teaching at Sheridan College in the winter and working on other jobs here and there in cooperation with other studios. However, by far, the next big thing coming from Imaginism Studios is our next book, "Cats & Dogs Sketches".

The master copy is almost complete; we will be doing the final edit this weekend ahead of printing next week!

The book will include "Home Alone", "My Red Bike", and other award-winning work by Bobby Chiu, Linda Bergkvist, and many others!

In addition, there will be:

... tutorials written by Bobby on some of his favorite techniques and approaches when it comes to seeing and drawing
... a tutorial by Robin Mitchell on how to improve your composition
... and of course, an extensive gallery of art that any dog and/or cat lover would enjoy!

Now as the printing date draws near, we've received some emails asking if we're still taking pre-orders, and the answer is YES! :P

We're still happily accepting pre-orders! And of course, each pre-ordered book will be signed and dated by Bobby, in case you ever want to Ebay it, haha.

So, if you'd like to support us while at the same time getting a great resource with which to further your own art (or you enjoy and collect beautiful artwork), simply click below:



We hope you will enjoy the next big thing from Imaginism Studios!

Ben,
Editor-in-Chief
www.imaginismstudios.com

Monday, October 31, 2005

Home Alone


Here's a preview from my new art book "Cats & Dogs Sketches"

It's called "Home Alone"

It's about a mischievous little dog that's been left home alone.

I had a great time painting this little doggy.
All I can say is glad that's not my furniture...

Hope y'all like it.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Subway Sketchisms

Here's some sketches that I never scanned in until now - from Oct.03, 2005

And here's some from yesterday.

October 24,2005

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Cats & Dogs Sketches - Available for Pre-Orders


Imaginism Studios is very pleased to announce that Imaginism Studios' next book is close to completion and is avalible for pre-orders. Click here for details.
All pre-orders before Nov. 28, 2005 will be autographed.

After Nov.28, 2005 all orders will be handed by our distributor and will not be autographed.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Subway Sketchisms from Oct. 16



This Sunday was great! Lots of new faces. I tried to get around to talk to everyone but there was just too many of y'all! Either way I had a blast and I hope everyone else did as well.

Friday, October 14, 2005

bloggerisms

[FROM BOBBY]

Being new to Blogger, we've been lucky enough to come across the blogs of a LOT of awesome artists, many of whom we've linked in the sidebar. Hopefully, we will continue to discover other artists' blogs or blogs related to art. If you have a favorite artist whose blog is not included in our list, please drop us a comment and let us know whom we should look at and we will check them out!

Now, to keep up with our linkees, I'll try to post a few more sketches per week. Here's a page of sketches from our Subway Sketch Group this past Sunday as well as a sneak peek at a piece that I plan to include in our next book, Dogs & Cats. I hope you'll like them!

(Click for an enlarged view)





Cheers,
Bobby.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

digital painting with bobby chiu

[FROM BOBBY]

This is a re-post of a comment I left earlier in response to Mee about the course that I will be teaching at Sheridan College (in Oakville, Ontario) this January.

We've received emails from a number of people who want to register but don't know how so here's some more info:

The course is called "Digital Painting with Bobby Chiu" and will cover many of the techniques I use when I paint. We will be using Photoshop and Wacom tablets. The course will be an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to get into the art industry in the 21st century.

You will find this course in Sheridan's 2006 calendar, which will be available in late November/early December. It's General Interest so anyone can take it, but enrolment is limited to only 20 students.

If you have any other questions or concerns about this course, please email us and we will be happy to have one of our overworked interns address it. :)

Cheers,
Bobby.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

now on ebay...

[FROM BEN]

Earlier this year, Bobby entered a contest called "Master and Servant" on CG Talk. His entry was called "My Red Bike" and featured... well, click on the thumbnail below and you'll see what it featured. Easier to describe it by showing rather than telling.


My Red Bike
(c)2005

So this painting helped Bobby win a Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 videocard, which you can now find on Ebay. It's brand new, hasn't been opened or even breathed on too heavily by anyone other than our part-time IT guy. The starting bid is only $20. For a $650 videocard, this is a pretty good deal, and you don't even need a coupon or buy in bulk! :P

The auction ends on Oct. 16. Good luck to all those bidding!

Ben,
Editor-in-Chief

Thursday, October 06, 2005

workshoppism

[FROM BEN CHIU]

For all you Torontonian art students out there (however many there may be, haha) Bobby Chiu will be teaching a workshop for 3rd year Seneca College Classical Animation students from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. at York University tomorrow, October 6, 2005. Look for the TEL building No. 39. The workshop will take place on the 4th floor on the south side (overlooking a very big atrium) Pond Rd entrance.

Even if you're not a Seneca College Animation student, still feel free to come out after the workshop if you'd like to meet or chat about art or borrow a pen or whatever. :)

Ben,
Editor-in-Chief

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

subway sketchism

[FROM BOBBY CHIU]

Here are a couple of pages from my sketchbook. I did these during our weekly Toronto Subway Sketch Group.





If you enjoy art and would like to meet other artists, please check out the Subway Sketch Group in your area here. If there's no Group in your town, feel free to start one! All it takes is the discipline to sit and draw somewhere for a couple of hours. Participating in a Subway Sketch Group is free and is a great way to learn from others.

Really, our weekly Subway Sketch Groups are not even about sketching as much as they are about developing good art habits, which of course start with good discipline.

So even if you don't think you are a very good artist, don't let that stop you from doodling for however long you feel like, whether it's for a few hours or for a few stops. And if you happen to be joining my Toronto Subway Sketch Group, I can guarantee that myself along with other artists (some of whom were contributors to our book, "Girl Sketches") will be available to give tips and pointers. All you need to do is be open to meeting new people and have a desire to practice and learn, that's all. Success at ANYTHING is hardly ever more than that.

Cheers,
Bobby

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

sketchisms

[FROM BOBBY CHIU]

Missed subway sketching this Sunday due to the Word on the Street Festival, but here's something I did earlier in the week. Lots of cats and dogs. :)



Cheers,
Bobby.

Monday, September 26, 2005

festival sunday

Festival Sunday wasn't as sunny and bright as Saturday was but not as wet and rainy as Monday turned out to be. It was a nice, in-between sort of day, lots of people, lots of kids, lots of dogs.

The Word on the Street Festival is an annual book fair that goes on in the park behind the provincial legislature buildings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We had a booth there this year just inside the inner ring. We (the talent: Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera, and me, Ben Chiu, the Editor-in-Chief and resident sign hanger-upper) got there at about 9:00 a.m. to set up. To our right was the Canadian Theater Review; to our left was shebytches.com, makers of angry, black and white bags, t-shirts and accessories. It was an interesting mix of presenters they had this year.

It took us about an hour and a half to get everything JUST SO, during which time, it started to rain. Water draining off the canopy overhead soaked our sign. It was the last remaining ghost of Hurricane Rita coming north of the border. Luckily the rain didn't last long and by the time the festival officially started at 11:00 a.m., it'd tapered off. We even had some sunshine. The humidity lingered for the rest of the day and made Kei's hair all frizzy though, haha.

The people of Toronto are great art creators and appreciators. Most everybody who walked by the booth stopped to check out a print, talk to the artists, and, yes, even buy some stuff! :) By the end of the day, we'd sold out of just about everything, save for a few prints, a handful of bookmarks, and a couple of postcards. Latecomers drifting by in the early evening who wanted to buy pictures, which had been sold out since lunchtime, had us tear down pieces of our display so they could purchase it, icky tape residue on the back and all.

A big thanks to everybody who came by: the subway sketchers, internet fans, and other admirers of Bobby's work! It was a long day with lots of standing and talking, lifting things and running around. I think Bobby, Kei, and I were all exhausted by the end of the day. I got home at around 9:30 p.m. and fell right to bed. I dreamed of festival-goers coming by my apartment and buying the Bobby Chiu paintings right off my walls, haha.

This art business is awesome. :)

Ben,
Editor-in-Chief
Imaginism Studios

Saturday, September 24, 2005

cats and dogs

I drew this as a preview page about two hours before Girl Sketches went to print. I hope you like it. :)



Cheers,
Bobby.

Friday, September 23, 2005

the beginning of the... beginning.

Hello and welcome to Imaginism Studios!

My name is Ben and I am the Editor-in-Chief here at the studio. Bobby Chiu is sitting next to me as I type this, painting on his Wacom Cintiq. He's presently working -- SLAVING -- over content for our next book on cats and dogs, which is due out in November sometime. I need to do SOMETHING to put up the illusion that I'm earning my keep around here so I will maintain this bulletin board. :)

Lots of things are in the works at Imaginism Studios and we're all really excited about them!

Frantic, but excited. :)

First off, we've got Girl Sketches selling well. There's still lots of promoting left to do, with the Word on the Street Festival in Toronto this coming Sunday, September 25, 2005. We've got a full day of that, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., out on Queen's Park Crescent. Please come out and visit us! Bobby's sick of staring at me all day, he could stand to see some new faces! He -- along with Kei Acedera -- will be signing copies of Girl Sketches, postcards, t-shirts, baseballs, patches of skin... anything you want, really, haha. Anyway, I hope we'll see you there!

In addition to Girl Sketches, as I'd already mentioned, work is progressing on Volume 2, Cats and Dogs. (The title is a work in progress; my next job, you know -- that whole earning my keep thing again. :P)

Lastly, Bobby will be teaching a course on digital painting starting in January, 2006 at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. It will be nine weeks long and promises to give all aspiring digital artists access to the way a professional, award-winning artist sees, thinks, works, and grows. It's gonna be informative and fun!

Anyway, that's my update for now. There'll be more to come in the next few days and hopefully not all of it will be about work. The studio has been a labor of love so far and we're having a great time. So please come back to visit again soon. We'll have lots of stories to tell.

Thanks and take care,
Ben.